Dipping Wildly

The idea of buying a jar of dipping sauce seems like kind of a waste to me, so I tend to avoid it. Not because dipping sauce is not a good thing – in fact it is. I avoid them simply because most dipping sauces tend to be pretty easily replicated with some straightforward reverse engineering (I.E. read the label and combine). Usually, you are paying top dollar for someone to do about 30 seconds of mixing for you to create a less fresh and less economical end product.

But every once in a while, I find a dipping sauce that provides a happy exception to my loose rule. Wild Thymes Thai Chili Roasted Garlic Dipping Sauce recreates similar dipping sauce experiences you may have had in a favorite Vietnamese and/or Thai restaurant (as a point of reference: this is similar to the sauce often served with summer rolls, etc) and throws it in a jar for all to enjoy. The flavor achieved is that tenuous balance between sweet and spicy, with the warmth of garlic and a little bit of tang courtesy of a moderate amount of apple cider vinegar. So you have a fairly sweet, and spicy (with visible red chili seeds) thick sauce that is almost as enjoyable on food as it is on the tip of your finger.

While a little thick for a marinade on its own, this all-natural sauce could easily be watered down enough to serve double duty as both marinade and sauce for steak, chicken, scallops, and shrimp. I did a light coating over shrimp and sautéed them to get a spicy caramelized shrimp dish. I would also recommend mixing it in with soup, rice, noodles, or even on a sandwich to attain that spicy deliciousness of the popular Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwich. To say this stuff is versatile is a bit of an understatement.

Wild Thymes Thai Chili Roasted Garlic Dipping Sauce is available for $6 per 13-ounce jar and sold at Addams, Wild Oats, Kroger, online and select gourmet and specialty shops.

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